Summer Holidays

It is hard to believe that we are right in the middle of the summer holidays already and yet the weather has been somewhat of a disappointment so far!

It seems that we have also been on a summer holiday ourselves, considering it has been awhile since our last blog! Nigel and Tim have been busy while Sean had been on another of his epic Scandinavian adventures. Our clients, Greenfield Garden Services are currently in the middle of having a brand new website.

Our Great Days Out UK directory has also had a number of updates over the last month or two! All of our paying clients will have additional text on their advertising links. We are hoping this will make our Google listing more competitive as well as increasing the number of visitors to our website.

Here is how one of their links will look like when you click on their logo...

Recent Developments for the Summer

Once again, the UK will be soon drenched in wall-to-wall sunshine (Well we hope so anyways)! So, as the summer is just around the corner, we thought it would be good to keep busy by continuing to tweak our directory with adding more text.

This will give our existing, paying customers more exposure. So you will see that when you click on this page here : https://www.great-days-out.co.uk/south-west-england/gloucestershire/, and then click onto one of the advertising links, for example, 'Cattle Country', you will see a box appear in the middle of your screen with the same logo but with additional text.

Have a look at the snapshot below. This is how it will look when you carry out the procedure above.

We are hoping that this will also help with our Google listing and website ranking, as we have taken a bit of a 'hit' from the latest Google algorithm and have been doing all that we can to correct it!

May Half Term in the UK

The Half term in May is only a week or two away now - dates that most schoolchildren have probably already memorised by now!

School holidays and term times can vary depending on which part of the country you live in. However the majority of kids will have the May half term break between May 29th and June 2nd.

So, where does one go? Well, depending on where you live of course, but for starters we think the East Midlands is brilliant. The South West has got some great scenic routes. Yorkshire and the Humber is a region which you can never grow tired of and there is always something to see in Essex and Kent! The valleys in Wales are breathtaking as are the mountainous views of Scotland. Let's not forget Northern Ireland either which is fantastic in the summer! With over 64 counties in the UK to choose from, just click on Great Days Out to find out more about what these islands can offer you!

If you are not sure what you would like to do in the UK either, then you have the option to browse by Category. This gives you 12 options to choose from - from Adventure Activities too Museums and Galleries!

We are easy to find on Google and Bing by typing in specific keyword phrases like, for example, "Great Days Out" and we have no banner ads or reviews on our directory which makes the whole process in finding exciting things to do less intrusive and distracting.

Enjoy the Great Days Out this half term!

A little Tweak here and there

Research on how people use the internet confirms that more and more of us are using our iPhones and tablets to go online. In order to make our Great Days Out directory more easier on the eye for the user, we were able to alter the size of the county logo's as well as the category logo's, thanks to Tim's tweaking! To give you an idea of the alterations, you will see 2 pictures below. One is before the change and the other after...

Before the changes...

After the changes

You will see that the main webpage is more filled out. It only took a few minutes to do strangely enough, but it does make a difference!

Of course there are always things we can do to improve our user's experience of the website and we will continue to do so.

A Quoakle Christmas Update

This will probably be our last Blog of 2016, so we wanted to let you all know what has been happening.

The development of the Quoakle directory has had some delays due to Tim Coysh's other commitments, i.e, a new job which he started a few months ago, but he has been able to do some occasional work revamping the website. We still hope at some point in 2017 that the new and improved directory will be relaunched. We will keep you posted as to when that will be.

Tim Davis, of TCD Web Design, is still helping out with websites and has learnt a lot about coding and design. He still hopes to fly out to Australia in April of next year and will be out there for approximately 6 months.

Sean Cresswell is still doing what he can to help continually promote the Great Days Out directory via all the relevant Social Media networks and to contact the myriad of businesses in the UK which is on the database. It has been encouraging to see the majority of businesses keen to renew with us during this past year.

Nigel Steele is still masterfully juggling all the paper work in the office! He was able to recently affirm our commitment to providing our highly valued clients Greenfields Garden Services with an improved package. This means we will be able to continue to provide them with a top quality service and look after 20 websites and online promotions, as well as their Social Media needs. We look forward to a longstanding partnership with them.

And finally, Christmas is swiftly approaching as well as the New Year, and many will be going out buying the Christmas Turkey with all the trimmings! It is a lovely time of year when family and friends get together. We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a blessed and prosperous New Year!

Great Days Out New Look

The Great Days Out website has just gone through a few look changes. A brand new background image is now visible on the website, and the homepage has a great looking header image.

The new background image is the next stage of a rebranding exercise and a definite step up from the old background image. The new background image really brings out the page content. By taking the banner image from our twitter account and tiling it we were able to create a great looking website background.

Once the background image had been added we felt that the homepage needed something extra. We then had the idea of adding a great quality header image to it. After a few minutes spent deciding on an image to use. It was placed onto the homepage using php.

We are very pleased with the new changes!

So what’s special about Great Days Out?

So what is so special about the Great Days Out UK Directory? Well...

… It’s quick and easy to use! 
… It’s easy to find on Google and Bing! 
… No reviews! 
… just quick access to the website of your choice! 
… No banner ads! 

Our mission is to connect our users quickly and easily with a great variety of days out activities and family attractions through a directory that is structured very simply – county by county.

As a small, family-run company with a friendly approach, we look forward to working with “Days Out” businesses across the UK. 

Autumnal Update

Well things have been progressing well with the roll out of all of the additional webpages on the Great Days Out directory!

We can proudly say that all of the additional Categories are now live and functioning correctly on the website. It was quite a big task, but with Timothy Davis and Samuel Taylor's help, we were able to get them all up and running!

We have had a number of clients who have been renewing with us over the summer and on into the fall. Treasure Trails, Aerial Extreme and Rock UK, who are national companies, have been happy to stay with us for another year. Not forgetting of course the many smaller, family run sized businesses too! This has been a real encouragement to us as it has given us the opportunity to promote both large, medium and small companies alike!

We are still getting people contacting us from all over the country as well, asking about advertising with us. This has not been limited to a certain niche in Family Attractions either, but across all Categories ; from Water sports to Arts & Crafts! With these new webpages, we are able to give a more robust advertising package to all of our clients!

Below you will see how the Categories' icons look on our website!

Great Days Out is getting Greater - Update

This is just another quick update regarding what we have been doing on the Great Days Out directory!

We have been continually creating new topic pages on our directory. It is ongoing work and does take time, but we can let you know that we have set up the following topics :

• http://www.great-days-out.co.uk/parks-gardens/
• http://www.great-days-out.co.uk/transport-trips-tours/
• http://www.great-days-out.co.uk/adventure-activities/
• http://www.great-days-out.co.uk/water-activities/
• http://www.great-days-out.co.uk/sport-leisure/
• http://www.great-days-out.co.uk/arts-and-crafts/

This means that there will be 12 Topic webpages which will cover the 12 Regions of the UK! 

These latest URL's are still in the incubation period but will be unleashed on the unsuspecting Internet world very soon! Our hope is that we will see an increase in visitors to the directory as well as increasing our Google rating. This will also give existing clients the opportunity to have more advertising links on the website. All in all, a benefit to all concerned!

Below is a snapshot of the new #Arts and #Crafts webpage.

Great Days Out is getting greater

As promised form our previous blog, we have been continuing creating more webpages and content and wanted to let you all know what has been happening! We stated that we had just launched Animal and Wildlife Parks in the beginning of the month, well we have launched several other topics since then!

May we introduce the new editions, Family Attractions, Historic Houses and Castles, Museums and Galleries, Outdoor Activities, and Play Centres. This has been an exciting development as it will increase the number of webpages on our directory and give us scope to deliver an even better service to our existing and new customers! There will be even more topics arriving on the directory. We will keep you all posted as these developments take place.

Below is a snapshot of the Historic Houses and Castles webpage. More to follow...

The Summer has arrived!

Yes, the sun is out this week and just in time for the schools to close for the summer holidays! This is one of the nicest times of the year, where people are out and about enjoying the sunshine and relaxing. Of course, with this season, a lot of planning may need to be done to keep the kids occupied and entertained.

We at Great Days Out can offer families up and down the UK a great resource to help solve the issues to the question, 'What are we going to do this summer?'. The question should really be, 'Where do you want to go this summer?'

Visit our website and you will see just what the UK has to offer! Enjoy the warm weather (while it lasts!!) and don't forget the sun cream.

An exciting New Partnership

It has been a couple of weeks since our last blog, this has been due to the fact that we have been contacting a lot of existing clients on our Great Days Out directory and have had their renewals come up. Thankfully most have decided to stay with us for another 12 months which has been fantastic for us of course!

However, we have even more great news! On the 8th of June, Sarah from Family Saver Card contacted us via our Days Out UK Twitter account and asked if they could work with us. Well we were instantly intrigued and after having several correspondences with the people behind the idea, we felt we could really help them with their SEO and promoting them on our directory! 

To find out more about this amazing business, please click here : https://familysavercard.com/our-story/. We think they have a brilliant service and have a lot to offer families right across the UK! If you don't believe us then check them out for yourselves.

One of the best Telemarketing Consultants out there!

Last Friday, Nigel and Sean were able to attend Charlotte Greenman's Client Creation Mastermind course in Coleford,Gloucestershire. We have gotten to know her well and in times past had helped us with marketing and promoting Quoakle. We have found her approach to be incredibly friendly and laid back but also very informative and after just spending a couple of hours listening to her share about her knowledge and experiences in the marketing world makes you wonder how you ever managed without her!

If you are a business in Gloucestershire or further afield and are unsure on how to make the most out of your advertising on the internet, then we couldn't recommend her highly enough!

Here she is posing for the camera after last Friday's session. The photo below is the Great Days Out website being displayed on the large TV screen behind Charlotte.

To find out more about her fantastic services, just click here : Accredited Marketing

Updated Great Days Out Banners

We have also created a number of Great Days Out banners without our URL listed on them. We will be launching them out through our various Social Media platforms on a weekly basis.

The first one is our standard banner, then the rest are as follows : Animals, Family Attractions, Historic Buildings, Indoor Leisure and last but not least, Outdoor Leisure. You will be seeing these pop up on our Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter feeds from time to time...

Client Creation Mastermind course

Last Friday, Sean went to Coleford in the Forest of Dean to attend a workshop held by Charlotte Greenman from Accredited Marketing Ltd.

Below is a photo that Charlotte took of the class! It was great to network with others who are also looking at ways to improve their sales strategy. Many ideas were explored and business cards exchanged. The course runs every fortnight and will continue into the summer. Looking forward to the next session on the 6th of May! 

More Great Days Out Banners!

We have been busy updating our banners for Great Days Out! As always, Stephen Holdstock has been busy in helping us to produce more eye catching ones. We decided that we needed to look at ways in how to better promote our services across social media. On our request, Stephen knocked up a few alternatives which are displayed below. We think these are great!

You may have noticed that each one of the banners above are slightly different to each other. The first one is our standard banner. The next one is the banner for Animals, then Family attractions, Historic buildings, Indoor leisure, and finally Outdoor adventure. Already we have started to place some of them on some of our Twitter and Facebook accounts!

Great Days Out in Cardiff - using my own directory!

It must be a good sign when a website directory designer uses his own website!

Well that is exactly what happened a week last Saturday. I was going out for the day with my wife and we were meeting our son and all of his family - his wife and 2 small children. We had planned to go somewhere in the Cardiff area which was half way between our home in Gloucester and their home in Baglan, Port Talbot. We needed somewhere where we could have shelter if it rained. Unfortunately the place we planned to go to was being redeveloped so we needed another idea.

Thats where www.great-days-out.co.uk came in. Sitting in the back of our car, driving to Wales along the M4, I quickly found the Great Days Out site on my mobile, selected Cardiff and found the various family activities being promoted. There weren't many at the time but one looked a great option... Parc www.parcplay.com.

So pleased to be able to click straight through to the website and find out all about the Cardiff childrens play activity centre! I didn't want any off putting reviews and was pleased to find out straight away what the attraction was keen to promote as their main facilities and activities. It was ideal as we had prepared a picnic lunch and at Parc you are allowed to eat your own lunch as well as able to buy hot drinks - a neccessity on a cold, damp day.

The rest is history... we had a great time at Parc and have decided to go back again as it offers so much for young families... and Grandparents!

We have a new Great Days Out banner!

Some of you may have noticed over the Easter Weekend that there has been a change in our Social Media advertising!

We felt that our Great Days Out branding needed a 'touch up', so we had Stephen Holdstock from http://www.heartco.co.uk/ come up with a few ideas. He has been instrumental in helping the Quoakle team with website design over the years and is a valued asset.

After a few ideas, we all came to a decision as to what looked the best and now what you will see across all of our Great Days Out Twitter, LinkedIn, Google + and Facebook accounts is our brand new banner!

You can see that we have incorporated a lot of symbolism, representing various images of what the Outdoors in the UK has to offer. We hope you like it!

Outdoor Adventure in the UK

Now that Spring is just around the corner, we can all look forward to enjoying longer days and warmer temperatures! There is so much to do in the great outdoors. The UK has some of the most beautiful scenery in the world.

For example, why not enjoy award winning outdoor activities and days out in Go Ape's tree top adventures for both seniors and juniors, including forest segways and zip trekking. Or join Aerial Extreme for a unique, exciting and fun packed experience on their awesome High Ropes Adventure Courses? There is also Rock UK who have 4 adventure centres in stunning locations around the the UK in Kent, Northamptonshire, South Wales and the Scottish Borders. Even Treasure Trails can offer the perfect way for all ages to explore different areas across the UK!

You can find these websites and so much more here : http://www.great-days-out.co.uk/ as this offers a simple guide to help families find Great Days Out in the UK!

Social Media

It is so important these days to make sure that businesses are visible across the ever changing landscape of the Social Media world! We have seen an explosion of different ways to promote businesses on the internet over the last few years.

As we are a Graphical Directory, it made sense that we should optimize what is out there on the internet. A BIG player on the World Wide Web is Pinterest, so a few years ago we set up our own webpage - https://uk.pinterest.com/quoakle/. Another growing presence is Instagram. We only recently set up our own Great Days Out UK account.

Obviously with all of these different ways to advertise, it can be time consuming for many. Trending, tweeting, hashtags, etc are always being updated every moment of the day. Because we have a wide and varied presence on the Web, we can help companies, both large and small with advertising. We have several Twitter accounts which can help businesses gain exposure as well as our Facebook pages. See, https://twitter.com/greatdaysout and https://www.facebook.com/DaysOutUK/ as just some of the examples.

So, feel free to get in touch.